'Gotta get to Blake, gotta get to Blake!' Yang told herself as she sprinted towards the leg space of the cubicle where her partner was hiding before the cloud of smoke cleared. At the last moment, Yang threw herself on the ground and sled; Blake caught her, and they both remained silent as they heard their enemy getting back in the air.
"This again? Fine… have it your way!". With that said, Hotaru then extended his hand and a deep purple glow appeared, making cubicles fly towards him which he then destroyed with the accumulated yellow gold on his other hand.
Blake and Yang looked in horror at what was happening, but they had devised a way to communicate without alerting Hotaru. The blonde took her scroll, quickly wrote a message that Blake at least could figure out and then showed it to her.
'Hes getn cls. How mch longr?'
The other girl wrote in response.
'Jst a few mor mints!'
Another loud boom indicated Hotaru was three or two cubicles away.
'Thn u will giv da sgnl?'
Yang asked, and the answer, although just a character, came to her as a divine message.
'Y'
On the plus side, Sub Zero and his team seemed to be getting close to the observatory as they could see parts of the ruins appearing on their way. On the negative, Frost's elites had caught up with them some time ago. Ermac had managed to distract them by throwing stones and big fallen tree branches the other way, but the machines seemed to be learning, so now they had to hide in various places and move at a much slower pace as to not get caught.
Ermac was hidden behind the branches of a tall tree, away from the six drones looking for them, managing to see two more that had arrived while Sub Zero and Hanzo were hiding behind tall grass, always looking at the other ninja.
The arrival of the other two drones was horrible news in itself. Their escape routes were now further blocked and the windows for chances to escape were now smaller. Worse of all was that with their growing numbers, they were able to expand their area of scouting, with the new arrivals heading towards the grass.
Sensing no way out, both Sub Zero and Hanzo prepared their weapons. The brows of both grandmasters were covered in sweat, nervous about the outcome of this fight and if they would have enough time to stop Frost and Onaga. A moment of confusion arrived, however, when all ninjas felt a cool night wind that was suddenly growing stronger.
Indeed, a few seconds later, all robots stopped moving and looked at a particular place, away from the observatory. "EU-0DA2FF just went off-line!" one of the robots exclaimed loudly.
"Calculating fastest route…" another exclaimed. "Fastest route found!" it then said, and all cyborgs began to run away.
All three ninjas knew better than to ignore a perfect opportunity, so with a nod from all three, they began to run towards the ruins once again.
After a while, the entrance to the tower was finally in sight; but Erman and Hanzo stopped when Sub Zero raised his hand. No matter how proud, overconfident, or willing to get rid of him Frost was she would not just leave her headquarters unprotected. Once the others noticed the lack of visible security as well, they grew concerned.
Steps were suddenly heard by all, and they went on to get their weapons. Hanzo even rolled on the ground unsheathed his swords and went on to hit the target's neck. That attack was then blocked by another katana from someone hiding in the shadows, but they recognized the blade and who the owner had to be. "Fujin?" asked a confused Hanzo. "So, it was you who distracted them!".
"Yes; it was me!" Fujin snapped back, surprising all ninjas who were not expecting hostility from their ally.
"You seem altered, did something happen?" Ermac asked.
"An explanation as to why you asked for them to come would be a start!" he said, stepping aside to allow the members of CRDL to arrive. And with that, the source of Fujin's anger was clear.
"What are talking about, we did not-" Sub Zero tried to explain but when he saw Cardin's team a second time, he understood what the boys had done. "How did you manage to convince the headmaster?" he asked, now as displeased as the wind god was.
Sub Zero and his companions might still be looking like teens, but now the members of CRDL knew they were dealing with high-ranking assassins in disguise. Cardin, however, stepped forward. "Look, I know you promised not to put us in danger, but I bet we were able to take the patrols off your asses, right?".
"That was Fujin!" Hanzo answered.
"And whose idea do you think it was?" Cardin responded.
The ninjas looked confused for a moment before looking at Fujin. "That… is actually true," he told the ninjas.
"I know you are the experts when it comes to… you know, but we know things about that building neither you, nor Frost know. We can help!" Cardin said, trying to reason.
The ninjas were unsure, so they looked at Fujin for council. The wind god, in turn, looked at the boys once again. "Did you discuss this with the headmaster?" he asked, and they nodded. "Do you have something in mind?" he asked, and they nodded again. "Do you need me for something else?".
"Just one thing…" Russel answered.
"Grandmaster Sektor, our ground troops have lost track of the altesian vehicle. Its last known trajectory suggests there is a fifty percent chance it was heading towards somewhere other than-" the Tekunin drone said before being decapitated by a pulse blade from Sektor.
All logic dictated that there was no hard evidence of his direct enemies being on that vehicle, but there were too many coincidences to tell otherwise. The shadowy figure fighting on top of the vehicle had a chance of being Johnny Cage, there was also a chance, however minimal, that they could have found a way to track them to his hiding place; and now with the vehicle being lost, Sektor was keeping close eyes to any possible hidden way in his enemies could use for a surprise attack.
The now lifeless body was being dragged away and a new troop took the previous one's place. "Grandmaster, the perimeter scan shows no difference with the previous one. The next one is scheduled in a minute; would you like to run it sooner?".
"Do that!" Sektor ordered before then adding more commands. "Add further proximity and movement sensors, block any access point in the basement, and make sure the roof is secured!".
"As you wish, Grand-" the robot began to say before a deafening alarm began to sound while a bright light shone on every surface in the warehouse.
Sektor's momentary confusion turned into rage as he approached another of his drones. "Explanation!" he demanded.
"Grandmaster, incoming vehicle. Altesian design!".
'They wouldn't…' Sektor thought to himself before a bright white light came from the windows on a wall and a roaring sound grew closer. 'They couldn't…' he told himself as the vehicle they had been looking for busted through the wall and having already run over some other perimeter troops outside. The missing wheels, missing parts, and the crash had, however, finally taken their toll on the vehicle as it fell to its side and slid across the floor, stopping just feet away from Sektor and his operations center.
"Well played, miss Blade…" Sektor said in a low voice. He then turned around and faced his troops again, having figured out Sonya's strategy. "This is a distraction, head to the entrance points and kill everything that moves!".
His troops bowed and ran to their posts, leaving Sektor alone with a few of his drones. His confidence, however, dropped when he heard a noise coming from the remains of the vehicle, the turret on top, more specifically.
Sektor and his men managed to jump away just moments before the turret fired; managing to destroy some of his equipment. A piece of the vehicle's roof then fell and from it emerged a younger version of what he feared: One of the Earth realm warriors, Johnny Cage. The man wasted no time and immediately began to fire a custom-made dust-powered machine gun, taking some of Sektor's robots. "Say hello to Johnny's friend!" he then screamed as he kept shooting.
Once he stopped, Sektor sprinted towards him. Cage then took out his brass knuckles which turned into brass gauntlets that he used to catch Sektor's punches. "So, Blade was stupid enough to send you as a distraction while they entered safely!?" he taunted.
"Ok, one: It was not her or my idea, Mr. can opener. And second…".
Sektor was annoyed that his adversary was taking forever to continue with his statement. That was until his human side noticed the smug smile on Johnny's face and understood perfectly; he was not alone.
Before Sektor could say anything, a swarm of Nevermores busted from the drivers' windshield shortly followed by Winter and then both Jax and Sonya who went on to attack the remaining Tekunin. Sektor was brought back to his fight when Johnny then released one of his hands and gave him two powerful punches and then a shadow kick, making Sektor roll on the ground twice before he used that momentum to stand up again.
"Have to take some credit though, my hard head served as an inspiration to the lady in white" Johnny said before assuming his fighting stance.
Both Ruby and Jaune crashed back-first against the wall behind them; their plan to attack at the same time having been thwarted by who they expected to be Hotaru once he somehow created an indigo aura around his forearms that repealed the slashes from the boy's sword and the girl's scythe. They had no time to rest, however, as Hotaru then fired the golden beams from his hands. Ruby then rammed into Jaune, pushing both out of the way.
Wanting to then force the invader back, Ruby shifted her weapon into shotgun mode. Hotaru was not intimidated at all; he blocked the first two with each forearm and then concentrated his energy on his chest, releasing it just as the pellets were to contact his armor and making them go back at the same speed. Jaune, however, seemed to have caught on with his strategy and managed to get in front of Ruby to block the pellets with his shield.
"Impressive, Mr. Arc" they heard Hotaru say. "At least now you will go down with a bit of resistance" he taunted as he fired his beams once again.
This time, Jaune and Ruby rolled away in opposite ways as the beams hit the wall, and as luck would have it, the beams landed where the garbage shoot was, and that, in turn, made the wall crumble while also breaking some parts of the roof. Unfortunately, that revealed a metallic surface behind the fake roof, meaning they could not reach Qrow and Nora on the floors below by just breaking in. There was some hope, however, as Nora's faint explosions could be heard from the newly exposed hole where the door to the shoot used to be.
Their discovery filled Ruby with hope. That, however, soon changed when Hotaru delivered a horizontal strike with a naginata, taking away a big chunk of her aura while also pushing her back and making her roll on the ground.
"Do you really think you stand a chance, little girl?" Hotaru taunted as he began to walk towards Ruby. The girl grabbed her shotgun and began to fire in desperation, trying to get him away, but Hotaru did not retreat. The man just walked forward, repealing the shots with his forearms every time. "You wanted to be warrior, I bet; so, allow me to make you die like one!".
Just as Ruby was about to be blown by Hotaru's beam, something heavy hit him on the back, making the beam hit the upper wall and not her. "RUN!" she then heard Jaune scream, and she did so, using her semblance to get away from the man as he recovered.
Hotaru then turned to face Jane, expecting to find him in the distance, but as soon as he and Ruby got together, he began to say something to the girl, and she used her semblance again to take them to the other side of the floor. Annoyed by this, Hotaru began to follow until he arrived at a room with cubicles on one side and a set of storage closets on the other. He thought how naively cute it was how they left some doors ajar to distract him, so he turned around and began to destroy the cubicles.
Ruby felt relief that her strategy worked for the moment. She was, however, unable to think of a way to get out unnoticed. Once Hotaru was done with the cubicles, he was more than sure to destroy everything else on the floor, including the closets. And with the exits closed, there were not many places else to hide. "What are we gonna do?" she asked her companion in a lower voice; but his smile left her more puzzled than relieved.
"Ruby, he is not invincible; he has to know that an attack is coming!" he answered her.
Before the girl questioned Jaune's sanity, she remembered how the computer monitor that Jaune had thrown was able to hurt Hotaru. "We were attacking at the same time…" she whispered in realization.
"Yes! We were never going to land a hit that way" he added. Their moment of enlightenment was interrupted by a loud explosion. Looking through the cracked door, they were then able to see fire coming from some cubicles. Those, in turn, were then turned off by some sprinklers, not all.
Jaune and Ruby looked up while Hotaru continued his destructive path and noticed the cracks on the roof. When they looked at each other, they then knew they were thinking of a very similar, if not the same, idea.
Thankfully for the Mistral team, and Sun, the Tekunin seemed to be only interested in keeping the army away from the light wall and Raiden. "Turn left before the next bridge and go forward for five blocks. There should be a cigarette factory owned by a subsidiary of Seido" Kitana instructed Sun.
"And the tracker says!?" Sun asked Kung Lao.
"Signal has only been getting stronger" he answered.
"Co-captain?" Sun then jokingly asked Liu Kang.
"No one is following us" the other Shaolin monk answered.
"Good enough for me!" and with that, Sun made a sharp turn, and the device began to beep loudly just as they passed the second block, encouraging everyone.
That was until the device then began to beep lower as they passed the third block. "What!?" Kung Lao asked loudly. "The signal is getting weaker!" he then told them out loud.
Sun pressed the brake hard, pushing everyone forward. "What are you talking about!?" the monkey faunus then asked looking back at the monks.
"I'm only telling you what I am-".
"Tekunin!" Liu Kang then screamed, interrupting Kung Lao. He also pointed towards a roof and, indeed, a squad of five Tekunin drones descended to the street. Just as that was happening, the device beeped loudly once again.
"Look!" Kitana said, pointing at another roof where they saw a distinctive red robot staring at them before running away.
Wasting no time, Sun stepped on the gas and began to follow. Things got complicated, however, when Tekunin drones began to follow them, almost catching up with the car had it not been for fire blasts from Liu Kang.
"Left! Right! Left! Left gain!" Kitana yelled, instructing Sun where to turn so that they wouldn't lose Triborg's trail. That was until they reached a road next to a small park filled with bombs. They jumped out of the car in time just as the first bombs went off, pushing all four of them and making all fall face first in the ground.
"Can everyone stand!?" Liu Kang asked.
"Yes…" Kitana responded, rubbing her head.
"I'll survive…" Kung Lao answered sarcastically.
"Ditto" Sun told all while cracking his back.
Soon after, the red robot landed in front of them but their excitement stopped when they were surrounded by a small squad of Tekunin drones and then light walls. While looking around, Kitana noticed the warehouse they were heading towards just two blocks away. With dread, she figured out what was happening. "It's a trap… Triborg was making us run in circles while planting the bombs…".
With that said, they all got ready to fight as two more of Triborg's bodies appeared.
Naknada pride, and nothing else, had to be the only explanation as to why the tunnel was left unprotected. Smoke was unable to see Tekunin hiding, and Kenshi did not sense any either. Truly, there was no other explanation other than Kollector wanting to take down Shade by any means. Eventually, however, they finally arrived at the end of the tunnel and into a bigger chamber where, as expected, the blue humanoid was, watching the invasion of Shade from different angles with joyful glee and not even holding his bag. It was also next to Kollector that they found some of the Tekunin standing guard.
"Stay here," Smoke told the others as he then turned into a cloud and headed towards Kollector.
Kenshi remained still, not feeling anything out of the ordinary; Jade, however, managed to see a weird box on the tunnel wall in front of her. At first, she thought it was part of the equipment until she remembered the tunnels didn't seem to be held by anything other than their own structure. Fear began to take over her when she looked back at the robots and noticed that while at first, they were looking back and forth in a pattern, now they were looking at Smoke directly as he was heading to the system's cables on the right of the monitors. 'They know we are here!' she realized.
Before Smoke could do anything to the cables, Kollector's mace sprung and went through the cloud. Normally, it would have been just that, but Smoke reformed and fell to the ground in pain, noticing shortly after that there was blood and torn pieces of cloth on the left of his chest.
Kollector's guards then ran towards Kenshi and Jade, both of whom were ready to fight. Once Smoke was able to stand up, he saw Kolector walking down the platform until they were now in front of each other. It was also then Smoke noticed a metallic charm hanging from the mace.
"I saw you fools flying through the city; never expected for you to find me. No matter; as you can see, I was prepared for you, yokai!" Kollector said before firing his mace once again.
Most of the floor's content in which Qrow and Nora were fighting was ruined beyond repair. Qrow himself had just managed to hide behind a still unbroken cubicle to stop computer motherboards flying at high speed towards him. Once he was sure no more of those could hurt him, he looked up to see where his opponent was, only to then run again as one of Nora's missiles exploded just in front of where he was hiding.
Qrow rolled and got back up with his weapon on scythe form as Nora then flew in his direction and landed on her butt next to him. "Rockets? Really?" Qrow questioned Nora.
"At least NOW I know not to do that again!" she said in defense. "You have any better ideas?".
Qrow considered for a moment Nora's words and the fact that Hotaru had, somehow, gained some sort of psychic powers. Nevertheless, an idea did pop up in his head.
He managed to whisper some instructions to Nora just in time as from the smoke appeared Hotaru with naginata in hand followed by pieces of metal from broken computers, lamps, metallic cleaning equipment, the garbage shoot door, and other things alike.
Nora activated her rocket launcher again and shot five missiles one at a time. As expected, Hotaru used his newfound powers to push them away from their trajectory. That was until the last one, as before it could be deflected it was shot by Qrow, blowing up and pushing Hotaru on the floor. That opening was what Qrow needed to finally catch the other man off guard, managing to finally make Hotaru go fully on the defensive using his naginata to block blows from Qrow's sword but also managing to throw punches and kicks which the huntsman was able to evade.
Hotaru had just blocked a vertical blow from Qrow and immediately followed by pushing his attacker's weapon up to deliver a strong kick on the stomach, pushing Qrow a few feet back. As the huntsman recovered, Hotaru jumped in the air and used propellers on his back to deliver a series of kicks against him. Before the last kick, however, Qrow jumped back.
Hotaru seemed confused by that at first until he remembered Nora, who then spun her hammer and activated its rockets to deliver an explosive blow which Hotaru barely managed to block while also repelling some of the damage with his newfound ability.
Hotaru rolled once before he managed to sink the fingers of his free hand on the floor, pulling away some of the material and revealing a metal plate underneath. "Enough!" he yelled at his adversaries before storing his naginata and making more propellers emerge from his leg armor. Soon after, those propellers were activated, and Hotaru was able to slide through the ground while also leaving a thin trail of lava, wanting to split Nora and Qrow.
Once each was standing on an island of sorts, Hotaru decided to take care of Nora first, arriving from behind while doing a sweep kick and then hitting her with a punch in combo with the slide which sent the girl flying towards a wall.
As soon as the girl was down, Hotaru quickly turned around to block with the arm guard of his armor a vertical slash from Qrow. While the blow was able to dent the arm guard, it was not enough to fully go through it. Hotaru was then ready to punch Qrow with his fiery punch again but stopped for an unknown reason. Qrow used that opportunity to headbutt the Seidan, making him walk back and unsticking the blade from his arm. Qrow then switched to his scythe, wanting to slash Hotaru, but the Seidan saw that attack coming and squatted; and once Qrow was done with his swing, Hotaru delivered a roundhouse kick on the huntsman's head. The attack left Qrow dizzy for a moment, but the greatest damage came from the fact that his radio earpiece was now broken.
Unknown to him, however, was that the earpiece radio signal had partially returned.
The screens on Frost's control room showed the situation had not changed at all. Just as it was expected, Beacon was concentrating its forces on the front and showed no intentions in trying to reclaim the kidnapped students. If anything, she was only bothered by the fact that her forces had yet to find Sub Zero and the other two ninjas. A quick glance at a digital timer, however, rested her worries, "Just a little longer" she said loudly, "Anything new from HQ?" she then asked one of the Tekunin drones.
"We have visual confirmation of six invaders. Commander Hotaru is taking care of the situation. We do not know what their objective was" the cyborg answered her.
Frost then headed towards the monitors and displayed the images. She was ready to dismiss them until she recognized two of the invaders: Jaune and Nora. "Two from Beacon… but what are they planning…?". Her thoughts were then interrupted by an incoming message from a scout. "Report!" she ordered.
"Target acquired! Objectives are being surrounded!" the machine answered.
For the first time in a long time, Frost finally felt her victory was close at hand. "Open a video channel and terminate them!" she ordered, enjoying each word. The scout did as she commanded, and seconds later, she was able to see all her perimeter troops and a silhouette wielding a katana. "What!?" Frost asked in disbelief as she then noticed that there was only one figure instead of three, her displeasure only grew when the figure jumped high and then dissipated into thin air. "Fujin!?" she asked puzzled, not understanding what was happening until a thought came to mind. She then opened a map that showed her troops were gathered somewhere considerably far from the observatory.
Not soon after a loud rumbling echoed throughout the room, followed by the sound of fighting. An alarm was then activated.
'Code blue! Code blue! Our location has been compromised! Code blue! Code blue!'.
"Sub Zero, you miserable…" Frost cursed out loud before stomping on the ground, denting it, and leaving ice stalagmites around the dent. "All perimeter units return to base! The rest of you, get ready!" she ordered as the sounds of fighting got closer. The Tekunin then closed and boarded up the entrance to the room before Frost reinforced it with a layer of ice.
A couple of minutes then passed before the ice wall began to shake due to slams coming from the other side. Three slam later and the doors burst open, allowing for a group of dead Tekunin to land just in front of Frost. That, in turn, was then followed by Ermac levitating, Hanzo wilding his swords, and Sub Zero, holding a cyborg's head that was still attached to the spine.
Frost then quickly glanced at her radar, noticing that her troops were still away but heading towards the observatory. She was sure that Sub Zero would try to convince her to change sides again, being an oversentimental fool. Her confidence shattered, however, when he raised the head, froze it, and then shattered it with his grip. "No more chances, Frost," he said with pure rage, and for the first time since leaving him did Frost feel fear for what he was going to do.
"Attack!" she ordered, and the robot ninjas sprinted towards their enemies while she used the propellers on her back to ram against Sub Zero.
Ermac used the fallen pieces of the door to impale the incoming attackers, but the robots' reflexes were enough to evade the debris before three of them got to him. Ermac then deployed his ax, managing to stop the robots before they got too close to him with a slash. They, in turn, deployed swords and flamethrowers before attacking him again. Ermac then pushed them all away, making them stumble before he managed to levitate one of them. The remaining robots then used their flamethrowers on Ermac, but he used the one he was controlling as a human shield while throwing his ax and using his powers to control it, making it turn around midair and head towards the other two robots. They jumped out of the way, but before the one to Ermac's left could land, he was already being pushed by the burnt carcass due to Ermac.
Hanzo was also attacked by a group of three, but he instead blocked the attacks coming from two of his opponents' buzz saws; and as the third jumped in the air, wanting to vertically slice Hanzo, the yellow ninja disappeared in ablaze. The third robot then turned around and delivered a roundhouse kick which Hanzo managed to block in time, getting pushed back as a result. Hanzo then pulled out one of his spears and engulfed it on fire before whipping it horizontally and making the robots back away. He then retrieved his weapon and threw it towards the Tekunin further to the left, but the robot rolled out of its way. He then threw to the one furthest to the right who also evaded being impaled by the spear.
That, however, was Hanzo's plan, as all Tekunin were now relatively apart. He then whipped the spear vertically one more time towards the opponent in the middle, and just as the drone was rolling away, Hanzo threw his second spear and managed to get it in his enemy this time. "GET OVER HERE!" he yelled and pulled the Tekunin towards him, and just before the flying robot smashed against Hanzo, the ninja did a fiery backflip-kick which launched his opponent up in the air. Hanzo then threw his spear towards the Tekunin again, effectively stopping it before the ninja spun around and slammed the robot like a mace against the Tekunin drone on the right.
Both fights were then interrupted by ice beams that froze in place one of the Tekunin on each side. Said attack came from an enraged Frost who was trying to hit Sub Zero who was sliding around her trying to get close enough to fight her hand on hand.
Figuring her attack pattern, Sub Zero managed to charge towards her, creating two ice axes before she could shoot another beam. Frost did not expect him to find a weakness in her attack, but she managed to block the incoming attack by creating ice drills around her hands which then captured Sub Zero's axes.
"Fool," she snapped, taunting him, as she then spun the drills, taking away the axes and then throwing them away. "See this!? With you I was never able to do anything but those useless daggers! Still think you can defeat me!?".
Sub Zero's stern frown did not change at all after what she said. "Even now you still don't get it," he told her as he then concentrated his powers to create daggers in the same fashion she once did.
Frost might have been wearing a mask as well, but her eyes showed disbelief first and then pure anger. "Why you miserable…!" she screamed as she propelled herself towards Sub Zero wanting to stab him with her drills.
Frost was still too impulsive, but Sub Zero had to admit that the cyber initiative had made her stronger and faster. He managed to block Frost's drills, but the force with which she attacked was enough to push him back. She would have carried him to the wall had Sub Zero not frozen his feet in place.
Once they finally stopped, Frost slashed her drills trying to hit Sub Zero's head while he blocked her with daggers before she could hit her target. As Frost then tried to pierce Sub Zero's head from both sides, the male ninja managed to trap the drill tips on the daggers' guards. He then pushed them up, making Frost lose balance and expose herself to a roundhouse kick – further stunning her – and to both daggers being impaled on her back when the kick made her turn around.
Her shoulder blades might have received heavy damage, but it was her ego that hurt the most. "Weapon training, first lesson, Frost: A weapon is only as effective as the one who wields it, remember?" Sub Zero then said, taunting her.
Enraged, Frost then activated her propellers again to gain some distance between her and her former teacher before turning again and activating her shoulder cannons which she used to shoot concentrated ice blasts that turned into big ice spikes as soon as they contacted floor or walls where Sub Zero was standing.
As Sub Zero successfully ran around Frost two times, there were enough ice walls for him to take care of the woman without interference from her immediate troops for a while. As Frost then shot another projectile, Sub Zero threw an ice blast of his own; when both then collided, a mist of snow surrounded them. Sub Zero used that to then get behind Frost and used his ice slide to ram into Frost with an ice lance. Frost, however, activated a mechanism inside her that separated her torso from her legs and head while also creating ice blades that coated her hands; her torso then began to spin at a high speed, forcing Sub Zero to forcibly stop, almost being minced by the blades. Frost's head then turned around to look at him before she then began to walk towards Sub Zero, forcing the man to create a kori blade of his own to block the blades.
While that happened, Hanzo had just thrown one of the robots against an ice wall denting it. Before the cyborg could do anything else, the wall was broken when another cyborg smashed it and crashed against the first one. Ermac arrived soon after and delivered a vertical slash against his opponent just as it was getting up.
Before both ninjas could discuss a strategy to take care of the remaining Tekunin, the faint echoes of running steps could be heard. This managed to stress the ninjas, but mostly because they were expecting their diversion lasted long enough for team CRDL to complete their objective.
While the ninjas were fighting Frost, they also knew that she would not go down fast enough without her reinforcement arriving soon after. Down on the observatory's basement Cardin, Dove and Russel were placing dust rounds on the main pillars holding the structure and creating a trail to help ignite them all. Sky was keeping guard, telling them what was happening on the upper floor. At first, everyone was scared that it would not be enough dust, especially since most was being used to fight back against the Tekunin at Beacon and Fujin could only carry so much before having to make the distractions.
"Done with mine!" Russel told everyone.
"Heading there now!" Dove answered back as he made the trail.
"Just... one… more and…" Cardin was telling them until they heard the echo from Sky shushing them.
They knew what that meant, and soon enough they heard loud stumping noises passing by. "Ok… I think we are clear guys!" Sky told them once the noise died down. Russel decided to remain with Sky while Dove ran to connect Cardin's trail with the others.
"Where to?" Dove asked his leader, but before Cardin could answer, they heard the door being slammed open and Sky screaming.
"We were found! It's only one of- AUGH!". The blue-haired boy managed to warn the other two.
Dove then looked at Cardin, panic present in his eyes. "Russel, hold him!" Cardin ordered before looking at Dove again. "Finish your job!" he then commanded before grabbing his mace and running towards his teammates.
Yang kept running around the office space and through the remaining cubicles with Hotaru flying behind her and trying to either pull her towards him or shoot her down. Fortunately for Yang, Hotaru seemed interested only in her, giving Blake enough time for their plan to work; and thankfully, so it was, as Yang looked at the slightly hidden head of Blake who nodded.
Luck, however, seemed to have finally run out for Yang as Hotaru finally landed a shot on her left foot, making fall hard against the floor, and only managing to turn around before she was pulled towards Hotaru; but just before he could grab Yang, the cat-girl emerged from behind a cubicle and began to shoot at him. None of them were enough to penetrate his armor, but he was distracted long enough for Yang to then deliver a punch strong enough to make him fall.
Hotaru would not remain there for long, both girls knew that, so Yang immediately ran towards Blake and they both left towards the place where they hid before. He stood up and saw them running and then began to follow them and managed to see as Blake hid behind a group of remaining cubicles. Deciding to take a more subtle approach, he then began to walk towards where he last saw her, and soon, he saw her legs sticking out from underneath the cubicle. "Found you!" he proclaimed before using his newfound ability to pull every cubicle towards himself, making them all blow up; but when the one where Blake was hiding blew up in front of him, a stronger explosion that he was not expecting occurred, making him fly backward and crash against a wall.
It took Hotaru a moment to regain control, but when he looked up, he saw the figure of Yang, who wasted no time in punching him on his face, his stomach, legs, and arms, denting and eventually breaking the armor. Yang kept going and going, while Hotaru could do nothing but look as the Blake on the floor suddenly disappeared and another approached yang from her left.
After a while, the mask finally broke; but just as Yang was ready to deliver a final blow, Blake grabbed her by the arm. "STOP!" she then screamed.
Confused, Yang looked at her partner's panicking face. "Blake! Get off me!" she yelled back, pushing the other girl away. "Why are you protecting Ho-" she began to ask but stopped when she noticed something that left her cold. The man in front of them was not Hotaru; it wasn't even a robot, but a man; a man they recognized, however.
Ponce Nero, a former huntsman turned athlete. It also made sense; his semblance allowed him to pull objects towards him. There was no mistake, that was indeed Ponce, but bruised and seemingly about to lose consciousness. "Thank… you… and… sorry" were the last things he said before his eyes closed.
Blake and Yang then took the guy out of the wall and placed him on the ground. "He is beaten, but stable," remarked Blake after doing a quick checkup.
Yang, on the other hand, was now livid, almost having taken the life of an innocent person. "That's it!" she screamed. "That asshole is going down!" she proclaimed before heading towards the door from where her former foe came from, now loosened after the fight.
"Yang! We must help… Yang! Yang!" Blake tried to reason, but there was no way of calming her partner now. Against her better judgment, Blake followed Yang towards the upper floors.
Both, however, ignored the fact that destroying the armor – more specifically the helmet – also helped destroy one of the radio scramblers.
Jaune saw as Hotaru was done destroying almost all the cubicles, but if they wanted their plan to work, then they had to wait until the perfect window. "Hold…" he then whispered to his companion. "Hold…" he insisted as Ruby prepared her scythe. Hotaru then walked into the last group of remaining cubicles and turned away from their hiding place to destroy the working spaces in front of him with his golden beams. Jaune then nodded before opening the door and allowing Ruby to use her semblance to get next to Hotaru, materialize in the air, and then slam her scythe against her opponent's head just as he was turning around and before he could activate the semblance he had acquired.
Hotaru rolled one time before getting back on his feet and facing Ruby who turned her weapon into its shotgun mode. She wasted no time in opening fire against Hotaru and as expected, he began repealing her attacks, but unlike the first time, Ruby also moved out of the reflected bullets' trajectory. He also wasted no time in making attacks of his own, firing beams which made her jump back, left or right before firing again.
Having rolled out of the path of two beams, Ruby fired a round of her own. Growing tired of this routine, Hotaru repealed her attack with a stronger push back; but unlike before, the bullets landed, pushing her back and taking some of her aura.
Hotaru was pleased with this outcome. He then began to walk towards Ruby, charging his gauntlets; but before he fired, he took a quick glance at the door from which Ruby came out. It was then he remembered there was a second target.
Indeed, Hotaru's body was pushed forward as Jaune slashed his sword against his back and then pushed him with his shield, making him miss his certain shot. The blow was not enough to break the armor, only dent it, but it did make Hotaru fall away from where Ruby was. He then got himself up and looked at Jaune, proudly wielding his sword and shield; but unlike the last time, he was now looking at him with a cocky smile.
"Seriously? Me? Who's pathetic now?" Jaune asked, taunting the older man.
The mask did not allow whoever was under it to show emotion, but Jaune liked to think he had touched a nerve on his opponent.
Hotaru then got up and shot at Jaune, but unlike before, the teen seemed to be able to roll away from his shot and even managed to deflect some of them with his shield. "Been practicing?" Hotaru's voice asked just before he made a shot that Jaune evaded by jumping back. Immediately after, Hotaru propelled himself towards Jaune, but before he could land a punch, the teen landed on his feet and blacked it with his shield.
"With the best!" Jaune answered back defiantly before pushing him back.
Annoyed, Hotaru then charged his boots and gauntlets with lava energy. He then threw a left and right hook which Jaune blocked. The blond then went on to deliver a horizontal blow of his own from the left, but Hotaru blew it away with his armguard and his semblance which managed to make Jaune drop his sword and was immediately followed by a roundhouse kick, which Jaune blocked but the impact was hard enough to push the boy to the ground. As Hotaru was now getting ready to stomp over Jaune, he was then stopped by a shot coming from his back. His anger only grew once he turned and saw Ruby, making him realize she was a distraction at first.
Jaune made use of Ruby's surprise attack to push Hotaru away and then roll to get his sword and stand up again. Both young huntsmen then stood ready to fight Hotaru, this time with a strategy in mind.
Unfortunately for them, Hotaru had figured out what they wanted to do. One would be fighting him while the other attacked his blind spot. Commendable effort, but futile in the end. Indeed, Jaune charged and then rolled under Hotaru's kick while Ruby fired, making him turn around and deflect some of the shots and making her move to his right. Once he noticed where she landed, he quickly turned around, deflected Jaune's vertical slash with both his forearms, and went on to kick the boy's chest which Jaune blocked with his shield. Hotaru used that to his favor, however, and got on the air.
Ruby and Jaune then went on separate ways, but knowing the girl would be a bigger threat, Hotaru went after her. The girl ran and quickly jumped and turned in the air to fire at him three times, two which she missed and one that got deflected. Hotaru then fired his beams but Ruby used her semblance to get behind him to shoot again. She fired a total of five times, missing three of them and then just jumping out of the way with enough time so that Hotaru's beam wouldn't hit her, and just as he was ready to then ram into her, Jaune used one of the last cubicles to jump at Hotaru.
The seidan managed to see the boy and was already moving, but he was shocked that Jaune had not gone for his back but one of his boots. The sword damaged the rocket mechanism, and that made Hotaru crash on the floor. With Ruby nowhere to be seen, Hotaru was now more than done with playing around with a nobody and charged at Jaune while firing his beams. Jaune blocked them but was unable to move until Hotaru arrived and delivered a chopping move which the blond barely blocked with his sword. But Hotaru's barrage was far from over, he then did a cartwheel kick which managed to make the boy lose the grip of his sword. Hotaru then continued his attack delivering left and right hook's towards Jaune's head, ribs, and hips which the other barely blocked with his shield, which was starting to get dented due to the ferocity of the attacks. The blond managed to block the first barrage, but after the first six Hotaru finally managed to punch him on his right ribs. Soon after, Hotaru managed to deliver a roundhouse kick on the left of Jaune's head, stunning the boy and leaving him distracted, never seeing the leg swipe that made him fall on the ground.
Jaune's aura managed to lower the severity of the attacks, but traces of the burns on his clothes, armor, and face were noticeable. He managed to recover just in time to see Hotaru jump in the air and then use the propellers on his back to launch himself towards Jaune, ready to stab the boy with his naginata. Jaune blocked the blade, but the attack came with such force that the tip of the naginata managed to penetrate the shield.
With the teen pinned down, Hotaru then proceeded to stomp on the boy and then tried to move the shield out of the way. The fight, however, stopped when he heard a gun being clocked. He turned around and found himself in front of Ruby before she fired towards him.
Every shot Ruby made was precise and not once did she stop to take a rest, not even when moving away when some shots got redirected towards her; but Hotaru just deflected all her bullets in every direction until the girl seemed to be finally done with him and went away.
Hotaru was confused at first, but he then felt someone grabbing him by the legs. Looking down, he saw Jaune holding both of his feet tightly. Hotaru was sure he was able to just kick Jaune away, but he stopped when he saw the smug smirk on the blonde's bruised face. It was then he saw Ruby reappear, but instead of firing towards him, he saw the girl shooting the roof. Hotaru finally understood their plant as the fake roof crumbled down and the boulders fell on top of him and Jaune, but the boy was expecting this as he quickly covered himself with his shield as they were both buried.
Once everything was done, Ruby went on to help Jaune get out as she saw the pile of rocks where the boy should be under move. She smacked pieces of stone away with Crescent Rose until Jaune was finally able to push the last ones away and then fell, exhausted and panting, over the rest of the debris.
"We… we did it… right?" Jaune managed to ask, but before Ruby could answer, golden beams emerged from next to them, and Hotaru emerged with his armor broken, throwing random electric sparks and leaking the bright lava liquid.
Hotaru then just managed to look back before Ruby smacked him in the head with all her strength, managing to even break the helmet in two.
The armored body hit the floor face down and Ruby changed her weapon to a shotgun again while slowly and carefully heading towards the body, and once she was next to it, she turned it over with the barrel of Crescent Rose. Ruby then released a deep breath, relaxed for the first time. "You were right; it wasn't him," she told Jaune who managed to stand up and walk next to her friend. Indeed, in front of them was Vespan Violeti, a disbarred huntsman turned action star.
"Violeti…" Jaune said almost whispering, "Should have known…".
"Any ideas?" Ruby then asked him, but their conversation was interrupted by an incoming message from what remained from the helmet.
"You miserable, pathetic, insufferable brats! I will make sure to not let you leave this building alive!" they heard the voice of Hotaru say to them.
"In case you haven't noticed, we just defeated you!" Jaune responded.
The sinister laugh that came from the audio device then confused the teens. "You really think I was going to waste my time on you mongrels? I have better things to do than fight all six of you, but now that only one is left, things will go a lot faster with that Branwen deadbeat; and believe me, Mr. Arc, one way or another, you will be the biggest loser of that fight!". Hotaru then laughed for a moment before the connection was lost. Enraged, Ruby slammed the blunt part of her scythe against the helmet, destroying it completely.
Ruby took deep breaths, trying to both calm herself and figure out what to do next. It took a few seconds before she and Jaune seemed to have figured something from what Hotaru said. "Blake! Yang! Any of you there!?" Ruby asked through the device on her ear while panicking.
No answer came from them, but both Jaune and Ruby felt relieved when another voice picked up the call. "-uby…? That … uo?" they heard the slightly scrambled voice of Nora ask before something loud was slammed on the background.
"Nora! What's going on in there!?" Jaune asked, his voice quivering with fear.
"Jaune! Q-… and I are… I repea- we're fine! But Ho-… more power-… -ow is having tro-… ing him!" the other girl told them. "He has so-… of… psychic powers now! He is thro-… at Qrow and me! AUGH!" she screamed, "… is now… the metal floors!".
From what Nora told them, Hotaru was right. Now that he was fighting one team remotely, it would be easier, and with Yang and Blake seemingly lost in action, regrouping with Qrow and Nora was priority one.
There was, however, a constant thought bothering Jaune when he remembered their brief conversation with Hotaru.
'One way or another, you will be the biggest loser of that fight'.
The fight would have to end with either Nora and Qrow dead, that was an obvious conclusion, or with the puppet, Hotaru was using becoming out of commission; but when he looked at the beaten Vespan, he thought he had figured out the identity of who the others were fighting. "Nora! Are you sure he is psychic!?" he asked while panicking.
"Jaune for the lo-… YES!" Nora snapped back.
"Has he attacked with things other than metal!?". The momentary silence on the other side of the line seemed to be revealing enough for Jaune and Ruby.
"…ow that you men-… it… ey are met-" Nora answered skeptically but was cut short when three loud reverbed thuds were heard, and she screamed again.
"Nora! NORA!" Ruby yelled on the communication device, but there was no answer.
Jaune then decided to waste no time and ran towards the garbage shoot, getting ready to try and slide down to the thirteenth floor before something hit the shoot and made it shake.
"Jaune! Calm yourself!" Ruby ordered him.
"You don't get it; we need to get there now!" he insisted. "I know who they are fighting!".
Neither Nora nor Qrow knew what had happened, but Hotaru's fighting ability had suddenly increased.
Qrow had to move on to defense using Harbinger in scythe form to block the piercing and slashing attacks from Hotaru's naginata. He managed to move out of the blade's way when Hotaru tried to stab him on either side of his head, only for him to then jump in the air and deliver his air kicks powered with lava blast, creating explosions that pushed Qrow away.
Hotaru then slid back and found Nora hiding behind a table, talking to her allies most likely, so he used his newfound power to levitate the large, broken, and sharp metal slices, make them spin, and then throw two towards each of his adversaries.
Qrow managed to recover fast enough to crouch as the first metal plate got stuck and rolled out of the path of the second before it also got him in the head.
Nora, on her end, jumped out of the path of both pieces of metal but failed to see as Hotaru flew next to her and delivered a roundhouse kick on her head with enough force as to make the communication device fly out of her ear and then blasted her at point-blank with his beams, finally breaking her aura as she smashed against the wall.
Hotaru pulled out his naginata again and was already propelling himself towards the now stunned Nora, but she was saved as Qrow slammed himself against him.
Both men rolled on the floor and then got up, but Qrow immediately began to slash his sword at Hotaru, delivering a blow against Hotaru's left which the seidan was forced to block. Qrow then pulled out the sword, spun around, and went for a diagonal slash to Hotaru's head on the right which the seidan, in turn, evaded by moving his head back. The huntsman then used the momentum of his attack to deliver a kick on the ribs of Hotaru, turned in the air, and then kicked him in the middle of the chest, sending the seidan back a few feet.
Hotaru recovered with enough time as Qrow had jumped in the air and was ready to deliver a powerful vertical slash. The seidan managed to block it, but the blow was so powerful the sword had managed to get stuck on the naginata. Both men were now in a standoff, ending only when Hotaru saw Nora trying to get up and grab her hammer. Hotaru then allowed himself to fall back and then let go of his weapon, stepped aside, and double punched Qrow away with lava energy charged on his fists before looking at the girl again. He then activated his powers to rip out a piece of the metal floor which he threw at her again.
That attack would have decapitated Nora, but she placed Magnhild's head in front of her face, keeping the sharpened edge away from her neck, but getting herself trapped as the rest of the metal got stuck on the metal wall of the garbage shoot.
Hotaru then turned to face Qrow again, who took the naginata and broke it in half, throwing the blunt piece away and then running towards his discarded sword. Unfortunately, Hotaru then used his 'telekinesis' to pull the sword away before delivering a punch square on Qrow's face and another on top of his skull. He then knee-kicked Qrow on his chest, grabbed him by one of his legs, and used it to slam Qrow twice on the floor before firing at him with his lasers, making Qrow slam the wall behind him and finally breaking his aura.
Hotaru seemed to be more than ready to finish the veteran huntsman, but a scream of panic from behind him stopped his assault.
"NORA!" he heard the distinctive voice of Jaune scream, and indeed, there he was, along with Ruby, trying to free the girl.
The orange-haired girl felt more than relief when her friends arrived, but that quickly shifted when she saw Hotaru looking at them. "RUN!" she managed to yell, making the other two look behind.
Hotaru shot his lasers at Jane and Ruby, and the boy had just managed to cover them both with his shield. The shot, however, was strong enough to push them away; and Hotaru then used his power to make the metal piece sink further into the wall and cut deeper into the hammer's head.
Things were bad enough as they were, but then Hotaru flew towards Nora at full speed, crashing against the metal and pushing it further in. He didn't stop, however, and just kept the rockets going, willing to take Nora's head once and for all. "I am done with you PESTS!" he screamed as loud as he could, applying more pressure.
Jaune then regained composure only to see with horror as their dire situation was about to get worse. "Qrow! NOOOOO!" he screamed as loud as he could, seeing the huntsman run at full speed with half of Hotaru's naginata and then stabbing him right through the heart.
The jets immediately shut down and Nora stopped feeling like being crushed by the metal. Qrow then retrieved the blade and allowed Hotaru to fall on his knees. He was ready to deliver a final blow but stopped when Jaune arrived and pushed him away. "Don't you dare!" he threatened, almost in tears.
"EXCUSE ME!?" Qrow yelled back but Jaune ignored him, making Hotaru rest on his arms before trying to remove the helmet. "That freak almost killed your friend and you are helping-!" Qrow vented until Jaune finally removed the helmet. It was then that he understood what was happening.
Nora was far from speechless. Ruby managed to wake up only to see that it was too late. The guilt that now consumed Qrow was almost enough to take that same blade and then take his life. "I… I… I didn't…" he tried to defend himself but knew he had made a huge mistake.
Taking away any innocent life Hotaru was using was, whether if they knew who he or she was, an unforgivable mistake; but it was only made worse by recognizing who was under the suit of armor.
Hotaru's mocking laugh was not heard by anyone. All those present could just look in disbelief as Pyrrha's emerald green eyes showed fear, and all hope was lost as she began to cough blood.
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Long wait, and for that I apologize; real world is is tough. But a promise is a promise and you will all see this story be finished.